President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday to raise entrance fees at US national parks for visitors from other countries, even as his administration tried to cut national park spending by more than a third, according to Reuters report. The executive order told the Interior Department, which oversees the Park Service, to raise entrance fees paid by park visitors from other countries.(Bloomberg)

The extra money made from higher fees for foreign tourists raised hundreds of millions of dollars for conservation and delayed maintenance projects to fix national parks, the White House said in a statement.

Rise in entrance fees paid by foreign park visitors

The executive order told the Interior Department, which oversees the Park Service, to raise entrance fees paid by park visitors from other countries, but it did not say how much or when the new prices would begin.

It was also not clear how many of the agency’s 433 park units were affected. Only about 100 sites run by the Park Service currently charged for entry and the fees varied.

The order also told the Park Service to make sure US residents got priority access over foreign visitors in any of its permit or reservation systems.

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‘Charging higher entrance fees is common policy’

At the time, US citizens paid more than foreign tourists to visit the country’s scenic natural wonders and historic landmarks because their admission fees and part of their US tax dollars helped pay for national parks, the statement said. “Charging higher entrance fees to foreign tourists is a common policy at national parks throughout the world,” the statement added.

The executive order came as the Trump administration proposed cutting more than $1 billion from the Park Service budget in fiscal 2026, which was a cut of more than a third of the agency’s budget from the year before.

The administration’s cuts to the federal workforce already made a staff shortage worse in national parks across the country.

Permanent staffing at the Park Service since Trump took office in January dropped 24%, while only 4,500 of the 8,000 seasonal workers his administration promised for this summer were hired, according to a report on Wednesday from the National Parks Conservation Association, a watchdog group.

With fewer workers at some national parks, including Yosemite in California and Big Bend in Texas, the group said there were closures, fewer programs, and slower emergency response.

Visitors kept coming to national parks in record numbers in recent years, with admissions reaching a new high of 331 million last year, up 6 million from 2023.